“The key to better nutrition, and ultimately to ensuring each person’s right to food, lies in better food systems – smarter approaches, policies and investments encompassing the environment, people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought to consumers in a sustainable manner,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day.

“Every day, more than 840 million people go hungry in a world of plenty. This fact alone should be cause for moral outrage and concerted action.”

The theme of this year’s Day, which is celebrated on 16 October in honour of the date of the founding of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945, is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition.”

A food system is made up of the environment, people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought to consumers. Every aspect of the food system has an effect on the final availability and accessibility of diverse, nutritious foods – and therefore on consumers’ ability to choose healthy diets. However, policies and interventions on food systems are rarely designed with nutrition as their primary objective.

“Addressing malnutrition requires integrated action and complementary interventions in agriculture and the food system, in natural resource management, in public health and education, and in broader policy domains,” FAO said.

The World Food Programme (WFP) stressed that understanding food systems and ending malnutrition can transform individuals, societies and economies, and is central to all development efforts.

“Prioritizing nutrition today is an investment in our collective global future. The investment must involve food, agriculture, health and education systems,” said WFP Executive Director Ertharin Cousin.

In addition to the 840 million people suffering from chronic hunger, there are some 2 billion people who lack the vitamins and minerals needed to live healthy lives. Poor nutrition also means some 1.4 billion people are overweight, with about one-third obese and at risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes or other health problems.

WFP noted that if the global community invested $1.2 billion per year for five years on reducing micronutrient deficiencies, the benefits in better health, fewer child deaths and increased future earnings would generate gains worth $15.3 billion.

The Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Christiana Figueres stressed that food systems are closely linked to climate change as the latter is making it harder to feed a growing population.

“Aside from permanent shifts in climatic conditions which will affect farming, climate change is causing more and more extreme weather, for example tropical storms, floods and droughts which can push subsistence farmers and others living in food insecurity into dire circumstances,” she said.

“If we are to sustainably feed the world’s population in the future we need to see action today that prepares farmers around the world for the impacts of climate change.”

To mark the Day, FAO will be holding events all week at its headquarters in Rome and around the world on the importance of food systems for food security and nutrition.

Today it will hold a plenary hall with various UN agency officials as well as a high-level seminar on global food losses and waste, and on Thursday a special ceremony will be held to mark the culmination of the International Year of Quinoa, with Nadine Heredia Alarcón de Humala, First Lady of Peru and Special Ambassador for the Year in attendance.

On Sunday FAO will hold the Hunger Run 2013 in central Rome, a 10 kilometre competitive run and a five kilometre non-competitive run/walk to raise funds an anti-hunger field project in the Northern State of Sudan.

FAO’s Food Price Index – which measures monthly changes in international prices of a basket of meat, dairy, cereals, oils and fats, and sugar – dropped nearly four points to 201.8 last month, down 5.1 per cent from August of last year.

The FAO Cereal Price Index averaged 210.9 points, down 16.4 points from July and 49.4 points from August 2012.

The drop in grain prices “reflects expectations for strong growth in world cereal production this year and, especially, a sharp recovery in maize,” the FAO said in reference to corn.

Global production of maize is forecast to rise to 983 million tonnes. The bulk of that figure originating in the United States where maize production is expected to reach 343 million tonnes this year, some 25 per cent higher than the 2012 drought-reduced level.

Higher maize crops are officially reported in Argentina and improved prospects in the European Union and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, coarse grain output is predicted to expand 10.5 per cent to 1,285 million tonnes, while the wheat to a 7.6 per cent rise to 710 million tonnes.

World rice production is set to increase by 1.3 per cent, reaching a new high of 497 million tonnes, in milled equivalent.

The boosts have led to a revised forecast of overall world cereal production upwards 14 million tonnes to 2,492 million tonnes, according to a separate FAO report. This would be 179 million tonnes higher than in 2012 and a new record.

The Rome-based agency said that based on the latest forecasts, total use of cereals for direct human consumption is set to expand by 1.2 per cent to 1, 094 million tones.

The FAO Oils/Fats Price Index averaged 185.5 points in August, 5.7 points below the July value and the third consecutive monthly decline.

Dairy prices, FAO noted, averaged 239.1 points in August, 2.8 points more than in July and 37 per cent above its level in August last year. Prices rose last month for all dairy products in the Index except butter due to export supply limits in major trading countries.

The FAO Meat Price Index averaged 175.0 points in August, an increase of 2.2 points.

“The humanitarian situation in Aleppo is desperate,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Yoka Brandt, who visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, last week. “Our goal is to reach children who most need our assistance, no matter where they are.”

The delivery, carried out by UNICEF, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other UN agencies, consisted of a 15-truck convoy that travelled from Damascus to Aleppo. UNICEF’s supplies included diarrhoeal disease kits to treat 30,000 people, medical kits for 20,000 people, 2,000 family hygiene kits, cooking stoves, high energy biscuits and school supplies.

UNICEF also delivered five generators and eight water tanks that will provide safe drinking water to more than 1 million people in Aleppo. The installation of these generators has already begun, the agency said in a news release.

Aleppo, which has been difficult to access due to insecurity and fighting, has the highest number of affected people in the country – at least 2.4 million people. According to UNICEF, half of these are children.

“Humanitarian needs, especially for food, water and shelter, are very severe,” said Ahmedou Bahah, who accompanied the convoy as head of UNICEF’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programme in Syria.

According to UNICEF, living conditions, especially in the worst affected areas, have become deplorable. Prices have tripled or quadrupled, and families are struggling to provide their children with basic supplies including bread, vegetables and fruits, milk, yogurt and eggs.

Since the beginning of the year, UNICEF has participated in 20 UN convoys, 15 of which were to areas controlled by opposition groups. Through these and other missions, UNICEF and its partners have provided 10 million people with access to safe drinking water, vaccinated 1.5 million children, enrolled more than 300,000 children in schools and supported more than 450 school clubs where children receive the support needed to overcome some of the horrors they have witnessed.

Since fighting began in March 2011 between the Syrian Government and opposition groups seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad as many as 100,000 people have been killed, almost 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries and a further 4 million have been internally displaced. In addition, at least 6.8 million Syrian require urgent humanitarian assistance.

“The cash allows refugees to have more control in diversifying their diets, and they can buy milk, vegetables or pasta directly from the local market,” said Abdou Dieng, Country Director for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia.

Refugees at Sheddar, located outside of Jijiga, the regional capital of the Somali area of Ethiopia, are now receiving a monthly ration of 13.9 kilograms of food – including wheat, rice, pulses, corn-soya blend, oil, sugar and salt – as well as a cash allocation of 100 Ethiopian Birr or the equivalent of $5 per person.

An additional 13,000 refugees will start to receive cash in the same region in October. The moves are part of a pilot initiative that will last until December.

The pilot project is part of an “excellent partnership”, Mr. Dieng said, between WFP, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the Government of Ethiopia represented by the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs (ARRA) and the donor, European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) which provided a contribution of $1.3 million.

Ethiopia, along with Kenya and Yemen, host most of the 1 million Somali refugees, who, along with some 1.1 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), are bearing the brunt of the factional fighting in the country since 1991.

During a visit to Mogadishu last week, John Ging, Director of Operations in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that despite gradual improvements in the humanitarian situation in Somalia, the needs remain immense and urged greater investment to break the cycle of crisis in the Horn of Africa nation.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the 2013 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan urgently requires $702 million in order to provide emergency and early recovery assistance to 7.7 million of the country’s most needy.

“Conflict and instability elsewhere in the region and the ongoing political transition in Yemen have overshadowed the humanitarian crisis,” said the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Ould Cheikh Ahmed, adding that there can be no long-term stability without addressing the humanitarian needs of the Yemeni people.

Yemen has been undergoing a democratic transition led by President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi, who came to power in a February 2012 election. A major milestone was achieved in March of this year with the opening of the national dialogue conference that will feed into a constitution-making process and pave the way for general elections in 2014.

However, more than 13 million people – over half the population – are still in need of some form of humanitarian assistance. Food insecurity and malnutrition persist in the country, as well as outbreaks of fatal diseases including measles. Maternal mortality also remains high at 365 for every 100,000 live births.

The appeal has been revised from January, slightly decreasing from $716 million to $702 million as a result of “improved prioritization and focus for the remaining part of 2013,” OCHA said. Within the revised plan, humanitarian partners have also identified the most critical activities that will help people in greatest and most urgent need.

The Plan is currently only 38 per cent funded, and this shortfall has already led to a reduction in the provision of life-saving assistance.

“The almost complete lack of support for early recovery, livelihoods and capacity-building activities is limiting the ability of humanitarian partners to build the resilience of Yemeni communities,” OCHA said in a news release.

“I urge international and regional donors to provide funding for these critical activities that will have immediate impact, saving the lives and livelihoods of the most vulnerable Yemenis,” Mr. Cheikh Ahmed said.

“During this time, household food stocks are expected to dwindle and food prices to rise,” Alex Brecher-Doliver, spokesperson for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) told the UN News Centre from Bamako, Mali’s capital and largest city.

For the past few weeks, he has travelled between Bamako, Mopti and Segou, in the south to the areas in the north most affected by the crisis last year, including Timbuktu.

Northern Mali was occupied by radical Islamists after fighting broke out in January 2012 between Government forces and Tuareg rebels. The conflict displaced hundreds of thousands of people and prompted the Malian Government to request assistance from France to halt the southward march of the extremist groups.

With the Islamist occupation reversed by subsequent actions, the UN recently set up its newest integrated peacekeeping mission in the country – MINUSMA– to consolidate stability and create the conditions for provision of humanitarian aid.

More than 4.3 million people are now in need of such aid, with nearly1.4 million requiring immediate food assistance in the north, according to WFP figures. Some 110 children die every day, a third from malnutrition.

The UN has access to areas in the north, but the situation remains “tight,” Brecher-Dolivet said. “Humanitarian access in the north remains unpredictable,” he commented.

“Many markets are functioning, at least partially, but cash is a problem.” Few banks in the country are open,” he added.

“There is electricity in the main cities, often only between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.,” Mr. Brecher-Dolivet said. “Even though some gas stations are not functional yet, fuel can be found. Often of poor quality, though.”

“More and more stores are open, and Government offices in light of the upcoming presidential election,” he added, speaking of the scheduled 28 July vote.

Asked what was available in stores, he said “mainly cereals – rice, millet, sorghum – bread, sugar and oil.”

Even before the conflict, the food security situation in Mali was precarious. The West African country is at the heart of the Sahel region whose sliver stretches across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. Access to food in the Sahel is hampered by high poverty, extreme weather, environmental degradation, low investment in agriculture, high prices and vulnerability to market volatility.

The humanitarian community has appealed for $1.7 billion to help millions in need this year in the region, which is still reeling from the crisis that affected some 18 million people in 2012. This year’s appeal is less than 40 per cent funded.

Travelling in the country, Mr. Brecher-Dolivet sees people farming – the rainy season has now started, the time when people plant crops, such as the grain grass sorghum.

Cattle breeding is also practiced in Mali, so it is common to see sheep, goats, cows and donkeys standing around staring back at you, he added.

Last month, WFP and its partner, the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) in southern Mali started providing food assistance to displaced people and host families. Beneficiaries will for the first time receive cash transfers instead of food. Increasingly popular, the cash transfers empower families to decide themselves what food to buy, and to purchase it locally, spurring local markets.

Similar programs are due to be launched next month in Mopti, and in Timbuktu and Gao, if security allows.

In other parts of the north, WFP is extending its emergency school feeding program to some 300 schools. There is also a work-for-food programme in projects near Timbuktu to rehabilitate irrigation plots, along with supplementary feeding activities for new mothers and their infants.

Food production has slowed and prices are on the rise, making it harder and harder for Syrian families to meet their food needs, the two agencies said. As many as 4 million people across the country are now unable to buy or produce enough food.

“With so many adverse factors now stacked against the crop and livestock sectors, and assuming that the present crisis remains unresolved, domestic production over the next twelve months will be severely compromised,” the report added.

The report followed an assessment mission to Syria between May and June. It found that massive population displacement, disruption of agricultural production, unemployment, economic sanctions, currency depreciation and high food and fuel prices have all damaged the ability of families in Syria to meet their food needs.

In many parts of the country, the price of wheat flour more than doubled between 2011 and 2013, prompting WFP to begin distributing wheat flour with its monthly food ration.

Damage to farms and machinery together with the threat of violence and the soaring costs of raw materials have hampered food production across the country. Among the millions of people displaced by the conflict in Syria, many are farmers whose crops are likely to go unharvested, the report warns.

Wheat flour mills and bakeries have either closed or are operating far below their capacity. Sanctions have exacerbated the situation, leading to shortages of raw materials, fuel and spare parts.

“There is a limited window of opportunity to ensure crisis-affected families do not lose vital sources of food and income,” WFP and FAO said.

Working with partner organisations in Syria, WFP reached 2.5 million people with food assistance in June, is planning to feed 3 million people in July and is ramping up logistics and operational capacity to feed 4 million people by October. In addition, WFP is providing food assistance to nearly one million refugees sheltering in neighbouring countries.

WFP is seeking to raise more than US $27 million every week to meet the food needs of people affected by the conflict both inside Syria and in neighbouring countries.

Under the revised Syrian Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan (SHARP), WFP’s requirements for its operations inside Syria alone until the end of 2013 totalled $490 million.

“Policy interventions that aim at encouraging greater levels of smallholder production for sale in markets need to take better account of the heterogeneity of smallholder households,” said David Hallam, Director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Trade and Markets Division.

In the foreword to the report, Smallholder Integration in Changing Food Markets, Hallam added that just as smallholders are a heterogeneous group, the markets in which they participate are also diverse in terms of their size, geographic location, connectivity to other markets, power relations between market players, and institutional setting.

The report notes that with greater market integration and more inclusive value chains, small farmers are more likely to adopt new technologies required to achieve productivity growth.

Stressing that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, the two main ways to link farmers with markets is to provide them with better access to credit and insurance, and to strengthen the links between farmers and buyers.

Farmers will not expend more time, money and energy in producing more, if any surplus will likely go to waste because there is no storage, no transport or, possibly, no market within a reasonable distance, Hallam said.

“The risk that any money spent to produce more will be lost is too great a risk for poor farmers to run,” he added.

The report also notes a paradox of high food prices. Seen by some policymakers as an opportunity for farmers to produce more and earn more, the response by many farmers has been muted.

“High levels of price, production risks and uncertainty, and limited access to tools to manage them deter investment in more productive new technologies that would enable smallholders to produce surpluses for sale in markets,” according to the report.

It also highlights the negative consequence of inadequate infrastructure, high costs of storage and transportation, and non-competitive markets.

In addition to more tailored policies, the report also highlights the role of the public sectors and international development partners to promote better policies for small farmers.

“The main coping strategy adopted by 82 per cent of interviewed beneficiaries was switching to lower quality foods, adversely affecting dietary diversity,” UN World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva.

The interviews took place during WFP monitoring visits in seven governorates during April: Damascus, Rural Damascus, Homs, Lattakia, Tartous, Al-Hasakeh and Aleppo.

The number of people begging rose to nine per cent in April, up from five per cent in March, according to the people interviewed, Ms. Byrs said, adding that for them, it was “their only option.”

Since it began in March 2011, the Syrian conflict has left more than 93,000 people dead and another 6.8 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

Housing is of particular concern for families in Rural Damascus, Damascus and Tartous. Forty-two per cent of those interviewed said they need help paying rent. Two or more families live together to share rental expenses, with up to 25 people living in a single two-room apartment, according to the UN agency’s monitoring reports.

Families unable to cover rent are living in uncompleted buildings, abandoned stores, old bus stations, factories or warehouses.

In those areas, along with Aleppo, children of displaced families are not attending schools and some are forced to work to help their families make ends meet, Ms. Byrs said.

Meanwhile, WFP is preparing for the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan during the second week of July. The UN agency said it is in the process of increasing its food transports for prepositioning into Syria since organisations assisting with the transport will limit their activities.

WFP said it plans to reach 2.5 million Syrians in June and July, after providing food assistance to almost 2.2 million at 200 locations in all parts of Syria in April.

The biannual Food Outlook published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that countries are estimated to spend $1.09 trillion to import food this year, hovering near last year’s level but 13 per cent below the record in 2011.

The greatest changes to the import bill costs of importing animal-protein products, which includes meat, dairy and fish, may increase as much as eight per cent to around $543 billion, dependent on larger volumes of imports as well as prices, particularly for dairy products and fish.

These increases to the bill could likely be offset by anticipated lower international prices for sugar and vegetable oils, as well as on beverages such as coffee, tea and cocoa.

The UN food agency said its Global Food Consumption Price Index has registered little movement since the end of last year, in contrast to the volatility of earlier months.

Meanwhile, record harvest prices are due to force global grain prices lower, the agency predicted, balancing out trade.

Cereal harvests forecast is expected to surge to a record 2,460 million tonnes in 2013, pointing to “a more comfortable” cereal supply-and-demand balance in the new season, according to the report.

This year’s forecasted cereal production could be 6.5 per cent up from last year’s reduced level, FAO reported, supported by higher global wheat output, rice production, and a sharp expected rebound in maize harvests and use, particularly for feed and industrial purposes, in the United States.

“Based on current supply and demand prospects, by 2014, world cereal inventories could register an 11 per cent recover to 569 million tonnes, the highest level in 12 years,” the report cited.

The resulting world trade in cereals is expected to reach 306 million tonnes, similar to this season’s level.

Also, global fish production is likely to reach a new record level in 2013 topping 160 million tonnes for the first time, as world fish prices continue to rise.

“Buoyant demand in developing countries for has driven world aquaculture production to new heights,” authors of the report said, adding that consumption is down in the traditional markets.

Fish for direct human consumption will also increase significantly during 2013 as a smaller share of captures is destined for fish meal production. On a per capita basis, global fish consumption is approaching 20 kg a year. Prices on a number of farmed species, such as salmon, shrimp and selected bivalves, have risen sharply, according to the report.

Demand for meat production is expected to grow more in developing countries, with the global outlook remaining modest. Meat prices have been historically high since early 2011.

World meat production is forecast at 308.2 million tonnes in 2013, a modest increase of 4.3 million tonnes, or 1.4 percent on 2012. While producers in many countries continue to face high feed prices, these started falling in 2012, and could further diminish in 2013.

World trade in dairy is expected to expand, but not by much due to limited supply. International prices of dairy products registered strong growth during the first four months of 2013, particularly in March and April, and high prices are expected for the next few months. The main cause of the price surge was a steep fall-off in New Zealand’s milk production.

Sugar production is expected to rise in 2012-2013 by 2.8 percent to 190 million tonnes, surpassing consumption for a second consecutive season. The surplus is likely to hover around 6.5 million tonnes. Increased production in Brazil, United States, Australia and China is anticipated to offset declines in India, the EU and Thailand.

This year’s Food Outlook has a special report on quinoa, coinciding with 2013 having been declared the International Year of Quinoa by the UN General Assembly.

“World demand is expected to keep growing vigorously in the coming years, driven primarily by developed countries, where expenditure on healthier and natural foods is on an upward trend,” the report said.